This invention relates to lamps.
Multiple small lamps are used in entertainment machines of the coin-operated AWP (amusement with prizes), or SWP (skill with prizes) or gaming kind (referred to as fruit machine or poker machines or slot machines), for back illumination of transparent or translucent display structures such as front glass panels and press buttons.
Commonly these small lamps are filament bulbs of the kind having a shaped glass envelope with an integral flattened base part with externally exposed electrical conductors on the surface of the base part which communicate internally with the bulb filament. The base part is pushed into a dedicated lamp holder containing contacts which engage the conductors on the base part.
These known filament bulbs inevitably tend to fuse or otherwise fail and require replacement. This is generally inconvenient and, in so far as the attendance of maintenance personnel at the machine site is required, this may involve significant expense.
It is preferable to use alternative lamps such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) which are not so prone to failure but these are usually hard-wired onto printed circuit boards with associated components and therefore require some rewiring of the machine before they can be used in substitution for the known filament bulbs.
An object of the present invention is to substitute a hard-wired lamp, such as an LED, for a filament bulb in electrical apparatus without necessarily requiring any rewiring of the apparatus.
According to the invention therefore there is provided a lamp assembly for use with a lamp holder having a receptacle containing electrical contacts to receive and support the base part of a lamp, which lamp assembly comprises at least one lamp having terminals projecting therefrom, and a circuit board having conductive pathways thereon, the lamp terminals being fixed to respective positions on the pathways so as to establish electrical contact therebetween and such that the lamp is physically supported by the circuit board, characterised in that the board has an edge region thereto for insertion into said lamp holder receptacle so as to be supported thereby, and said pathways include mutually spaced conductive portions at said edge region for conductive engagement with said contacts within said lamp holder receptacle.
With this arrangement the lamp assembly can be inserted into the lamp holder, in like manner to a conventional filament bulb, notwithstanding the use of a lamp of the hard-wired kind.
Preferably the lamp is an LED and the lamp terminals are projecting wires.
The lamp terminals are preferably soldered to the pathway positions, and the circuit board is preferably a printed circuit board.
The circuit board may also have affixed to the pathways, e.g. by soldering, one or more electrical components other than the (or each) lamp such as a resistor, diode, capacitor, fuse or any other suitable component.
The circuit board may be of any suitable shape. In a preferred embodiment the board is of generally rectangular shape with an extension or stepped part, preferably at an opposite side to the lamp, to provide the said end region.
Preferably, the board and the lamp holder are provided with means to influence, e.g. to facilitate or ensure, interconnection therebetween in a desired mode, such as a desired orientation and/or polarity of electrical connection.
Thus, for example, there may be cooperable configurations on the board and lamp holder which permit interconnection in the said mode but otherwise restrict or prevent interconnection.
The cooperable configurations may comprise an upward projection on the lamp holder and a transverse extension on the board whereby the projection is clear of the extension in the said mode but the extension engages the projection in the (or any) other mode.
The board may be presentable to the lamp holder for insertion therein two ways round, one way corresponding to the desired mode and the other way being an undesired mode.
In accordance with a further preferred embodiment, the board includes circuitry to enable the board to be connected to the lamp holder without requiring conformation to a desired mode, e.g. such that different polarizations of correction are possible. This arrangement may be used in place of the aforesaid arrangement to facilitate or ensure interconnection in a desired mode.
The circuitry may comprise a diode bridge arrangement which accommodates either of two opposite polarities of interconnections between the board and the lamp holder.
The lamp assembly of the invention is particularly suitable for use in an entertainment machine as mentioned above, although the invention is not necessarily restricted to this.
The lamp assembly may be used with two or more lamps fixed to the same board. In this case the lamps may be connected to be operated together or they may be independently controllable.